Lob Bombs Newest Threat in Iraq
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — A new weapon has recently been unleashed on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, apparently this new threat has been dubbed the “Lob Bomb”
It’s not as if it is new technology, it is just using existing tech together to make a kind of roadside IED into a rocket assisted IED
Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, called the weapon “the greatest threat right now that we face,” and he compared the stealthy group behind it to the American military’s elite Delta Force.
The weapon is of particular concern because it is designed to cause severe damage and cannot be stopped once it has been fired.
An individual was detained on Thursday who Hammond said could provide valuable insights into the group behind the bomb making. “We think we have defined the network,” he said. He would not elaborate, although other American officers said in interviews that the group is Shiite and may have links to Iran.
“We think we might have picked up a guy that could expose the militant perpetrators,” Hammond said.
there are suspicions that this group may be related to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr who’s Mahdi Army once held sway in the Sadr City section of Baghdad until U.S. and Iraqi forces gained control after seven weeks of fighting that ended in May.
Arguing against a link to such an al-Sadr initiative is the fact that the group that Hammond described has been operating since at least late 2007, although it has become more active in recent months.
The 107 mm rockets that are used in the improvised bombs, which some call an airborne version of the roadside IED’s that through the course of the war have been the top cause of casualties of U.S. troops are manufactured in Iran, officials said. It should however be cautioned to assume Iran is involved directly .
The weapons are launched from small trucks and are fired in multiples of four to nine rockets at a time. The detonation is sometimes triggered by a signal from a cell phone, other times by a washing machine timer.
Brig. Gen. Will Grimsley, deputy commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, said in a separate AP interview on Thursday that for lack of a better term he refers to the group as “the evil militia.” He said it is small and exhibits a high degree of technical skill in assembling the weapons and executing attacks.
The military calls the weapon an “improvised rocket-assisted mortar,” or IRAM.
Hammond said the perpetrators are so skilled that he has likened their organization to the U.S. military’s secretive and elite Delta Force. He said they have demonstrated an unusual degree of military skill and cunning.
“They don’t leave a forensic trail, and that just means we’re going to have to work a little bit longer” to eliminate them, he said. “Of everything we’ve had to deal with here, this is a tough one. They’re sort of the Delta Force of this enemy we face out there. They are very good” at covering their tracks, picking out targets and preserving secrecy about their membership and movements.
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